LIBRARY OF CONGRESS, 

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UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 





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PUBLISHED BY 



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Department of Mercy and Help. 

EPWORTH LEAGUE. 

Portland, Or. 

1894. 



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[THE LIBRARY 
|0» CONGRESS 



WASMINOTOHJ £X$ ^^3 






PREFATORY NOTE. 



The contents of this little volume have 
been gleaned, and are published, by the 
Mercy and Help Department of the Ep- 
worth League Chapter of the Taylor 
Street First Methodist Episcopal Church, 
Portland, Oregon, for the benefit of the 
Industrial School, sustained by the 
League. 



COPYRIGHTED, 1894, BY EPWORTH LEAGUE. 






biographical. 



^^^^^(g^^. 



* * 



Charles Edward Locke was born in a parsonage in 
Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, September 9th, 1858. He is 
the son of William Henry Locke, D. D., honored in 
Ohio and. Pennsylvania as a preacher and writer. He 
is the oldest in a family of six children. His earlier 
education was pursued in the Public Schools of Pitts- 
burg, at Beaver Seminary and Mount Union College. 
At fifteen years of age he entered a printing office and 
learned the trade, remaining for three years. In 1880 
he was graduated in the classical course from Allegheny 
College at Meadville, Pennsylvania. 

Doctor Locke began to preach during his junior year 
in college, and after his graduation be was received 
into the East Ohio Conference, where he spent eight 
years in the suburbs of Cleveland. In 1888 he was 
transferred to the Smithfield Street Methodist Episco- 
pal Church of Pittsburg, a church justly historical as 
having had among its pastors Bishops Simpson and 
Bascom, Doctors Charles Elliott and William Hunter, 
and a long line of illustrious ministers. He remained 



ill Pittsburg until the autumn of 1892, when he 
was appointed to the Taylor Street First Methodist 
Episcopal Church of Portland, Oregon. 

In December, 1882, Doctor Locke was united in 
marriage to Miss Mina J. Wood, the daughter of 
Captain John A. Wood, a representative Methodist of 
Pittsburg. Four children have blessed their parsonage 
home, all little girls, except one who, after two years 
and a half, passed over to the Other Side. In 1883 
Doctor and Mrs. Locke made an extensive tour of 
Europe, Africa and the Holy Land. 

In January, 1893, the Degree of Doctor of Divinity 
was conferred upon Doctor Locke by Allegheny 
College, his Alma Mater. 



f cilpii pearls. 



* * 



It has been said, " Every man has his price ;" but I 
do not believe it. Benedict Arnold may have had his 
price, and he died in squalor and disgrace. Judas 
Iscariot may have had his price, and he took his life to 
end his consuming remorse. But these are exceptions; 
all men are not traitors. Joseph refused to sacrifice 
his integrity, and Pharoah made him Governor of 
Egypt. Daniel would not barter his manhood, and 
became the Disraeli of Persia. George Jones, as ed- 
itor of the New York Tribune, could not be bought 
when the Tweed ring offered him §5,000,000 if he 
would withhold the publication of certain damaging 
information. A certain revolutionary patriot, when 
George III. tendered him £3,000 if he would desert the 
colonists and enter the British service, bravely replied, 
4i Three thousand pounds ! I am not worth purchasing, 
but such as I am the King of England is not rich 
enough to buy me." No, every man has not his price. 
Horace Walpole was mistaken. You cannot buy the 
true Christian at any price ! 



Every member of society should be a good Samari- 
tan. Humanity still travels the dangerous road from 
Jerusalem to Jericho. Half-killed wayfarers must be 
cared for. Mount Gerizim will ever rise higher than 
Mount Moriah. Robed formalism may pass by on the 
other side, but loving hearts will pour healing balm 
into gaping w r ounds. 

The true Christian cannot be an idolater. Fame, 
fashion, wealth have many devotees. While Jehovah 
is carrying forward His purposes upon quivering 
Sinais, let His people refuse to bow down to golden 
calves. Wait patiently for God; He has mighty 
secrets to reveal. 



It is a discriminating definition which describes sancti- 
fication as the grace of giving up. Paul's severely 
denounced principle to refrain from eating meats, if 
by so doing he would cause his fellowman to sin, must 
be incorporated in the thoughts and habits of men 
to-day, or else modern society will shipwreck human- 
ity. Self-denial and not discrimination should be the 
shibboleth of real manhood. "If any man will be my 
disciple," says Jesus, ik he must deny himself." Total 
abstinence is born of brotherly love. Thunderous 
denunciation is hurled upon us for demanding of men 



to practice self-denial. "What, give up our liberty, 
our privileges, our enjoyments, our tastes ? These 
things are our rights!*' Yes, but there is another 
right greater than personal liberty — it is our right to 
surrender our rights. All honor to those who for 
their love for weaker humanity, will eschew those 
things which cause many to stumble and fall — "Inas- 
much as ye have done it unto one of the least of 
these!" It is surely little to ask of us, who are the re- 
cipients of the numberless opportunities of this Edenic 
civilization, the most imposing in the world's history, 
that, for the sake of our brother-man, Ave should de- 
prive ourselves of a few things which might afford a 
little temporary pleasure. Let us recall the privations 
and sacrifices of the Apostles, and Crusaders and early 
Protestants and bow our heads in shame if we have 
ever refused to suffer a little for the sake of others! 



The civilization that will endure will build its super- 
structures on the avenues of light which radiate from 
Calvary's blazing Cross. Here will be found the per- 
petual Capitol of the Ages. Christliness is the backbone 
of the modern social system. Corruption is not con- 
fined to the ignorant and the poor ; education is not 
character; culture is not honesty; refinement is not in- 
tegrity. Unless these are joined with religion, pure 



and undefiled, there is no good hope for manhood. 
Hear the wail of Tammany's dying chief: "My life 
has been a failure in everything; there is nothing I am 
proud of!" Tweed leads a vast throng who are 
seeking success without Christ! 



A very plain man once remarked, < ; The thing that 
gets me is how much Christians are unlike Christ." 
There is food for reflection in the remark. The re- 
ligion of the church altars on the Sunday is to be the 
religion of the desk, the counter, the field, the forum, 
the furnace, the forge and the factory, on the Monday. 
Diligence is a talent ; if a man has no other he will 
succeed. 

The Christian man must give full weights, full meas- 
ures, full values. Some business firms offer special 
commissions to the salesman for the disposal of articles 
of inferior value at full price. Hypocrisy and theft 
will result from such infractions of the laws of right- 
eousness. It may be called shrewd financiering to 
use questionable methods in securing gain, but, before 
God, it is nothing but gambling and robbery. 

Nothing but more Christliness will solve the intricate 
labor and economic problems ; and the sooner capital 



and labor gather about the shrines of Jesus of Naza- 
reth, for confession and consecration, the sooner will 
these obstinate and perilous antagonisms disappear. 



We must guard against being, as Thomas Chalmers 
put it, '-bustled out of our spirituality.** We must 
be ever watchful, or increasing responsibilities will 
crowd us out of family worship, Bible reading and the 
prayer meeting. 



The people were astonished at the teachings of Jesus. 
It was not his elaborate diction, nor his adroit syllo- 
gism, nor his eloquence, nor his elocution : but his 
plain, practical method of dealing with profoundest 
subjects: not as the cringing and imitating scribes, 
but with the authority of an original and courageous 
thinker ! 



The doctrine of conversion must appeal to the hard 
sense of any thoughtful individual. It is a reconstruc- 
tion of the heart by a driving out of sin and an enthron- 
ing of grace and truth. Conversion is commencing to 
do right. True religion does not begin with an un- 
known quantity. 



Oar Lord undertook to divest religion of sentiment 
and idealism. The people had so long climbed to the 
summit of Moriah to worship that they were inclined 
to elevate religion to a lofty pedestal, as a thing not to 
be contaminated by contact with men in the valleys 
where humanity swarmed and toiled. 



Jesus strove to emancipate religion from rites and 
ceremonies. Just when, at His death, His mission 
seemed to have failed, the veil of the Temple was rent 
in twain, and the secret of the Holy of Holies floated 
out to find lodgement in human hearts. 



The most sensible thing that men can consider is 
Christianity. It will tax the largest practical common 
sense of the wisest man. 

It is not what men profess that constitutes holiness, 
but how they live. Holiness is not an attribute which 
awaits us at the grave, but a blessing which will add 
usefulness and lustre to the journey. That is the most 
exquisite holiness, which, unasserted, adorns the lives 
of devout men. 



It is ludicrously ungrateful for a certain class of 
thinkers to claim to have no need for God. The neces- 
sity and fact of a Creator remain the same even after 
men have discovered the method of creation employed 
by the Divine One. 

When men shall have exhausted all their common- 
sense in interpreting God and His operations, they will 
still need to pray for more common sense. 



Will thorns in the flesh interfere with a successful 
and useful life? No, emphatically! Paul became an 
indefatigable apostle and evangelist, whose work con- 
tinues until this day. Beethoven, the musician, and Sir 
Joshua Reynolds, the artist, and Dr. Whedon, the 
commentator, and Kitto, the voluminous encj^clopedist, 
were deaf. Milton, and Galileo in his last days, and 
Prescott, and Bach the German composer were blind. 
Michael Angelo had a broken nose ; Alexander Pope was 
so crooked with disease that he was called an interroga- 
tion point; Samuel Johnson had a hideous facial dis- 
figurement ; Charles Lamb stuttered ; Thaddeus Stevens 
and Alex. H. Stephens were cripples. In a long list of 
invalids, semi and confirmed, I would mention Homer, 
Virgil, Horace, Pascal, Dante. Coleridge, Cowper, 
Schiller, Hawthorne, Hugh Miller, Darwin, Euskin, 



Carlyle, Dean Swift, Bacon, Kepler, Bronte, David 
Livingstone, Lincoln and Jackson. Alfred the Great 
was tormented by a disease which did not allow him an 
hour's rest. Jay Gould, the railroad magnate; 
Samuel Randall, the statesman ; Helen Hunt Jackson, 
poetess and authoress, and Roebling, the architect of 
Brooklyn bridge, were constant sufferers. 



No, thorns do not interfere with a useful life. They 
teach us to make a just estimate of ourselves ; they 
discourage egotism and vanity and conceit; give us a 
fellow feeling for mankind. We have to suffer to 
sympathize ; they make us altruists. 



The ruined temple of Athena on the Acropolis at 
Athens, of Helios at Baalbec, of the Sacred Apis in 
Egypt, all testify in picturesque eloquence to the sur- 
render of the Oriental beliefs to the God of Sinai and 
the Christ of Olivet. 

The boy of to-day is the product of the civilization 
of sixty centuries. He ought to be, and I believe he is, 
the best boy that has ever walked the earth. If this 
boy would have a chance in life he must be taught the 
value of a dollar. 



At a dog show in a certain town on the Pacific 
Coast was a sign : < ; No smoking here ; it will hurt the 
dogs/' If society could be prevented from indul- 
gence in those things which are directly injurious to 
the boys, many things, which are now defended as 
eminently respectable, would disappear. Poor boy ! 
If you were a dog we would take better care of you. 



When Napoleon Bonaparte poured his French bat- 
talions over the Alps, completely inundating Italy, and 
bewilderingiy defeating the Austrians, in the famous 
battle of Marengo; when Alexander the Great, at 
twenty years of age, subdued Greece, invaded Persia 
and planned the amalgamation of Europe and Asia, 
and the extension of his own empire as far west as the 
Atlantic: the motto of the former was "Napoleon ! 
Napoleon !" the impulse which aroused the latter was 
4 'Alexander! Alexander!" but when to the thrilling 
music of life and drum, the boys in blue marched 
from Northern firesides, to courageously meet an insid- 
ious foe on a thousand battle-fields, no thoughts of sel- 
fish glory filled their breasts ; their inspiration was a 
purpose written on every heart: "For Gocl, for 
Home, for Native Land." 



There is a power building inimical elements into the 
superstructure of every nation's life, which will break 
down national integrity, unless the foe is itself 
destroyed. Read the record of the nations, which, at 
different periods, have embroidered the Mediterranean 
Sea. Egypt with its Ptolemys ; Greece with its 
Pericles and Miltiades ; Rome with its Ceesar and its 
Cicero, compelled to transfer its capital from the banks 
of the muddy Tiber to the green slopes of the 
Bosphorus. All these mighty empires hurried into 
oblivion because they were unable to subjugate the 
enemies which developed under the protection of 
proud institutions. On the borders of Sahara, at the 
site of Ancient Memphis, I saw a colossal statue of 
Rameses II. lying with its face in the sand. It 
perfectly symbolizes the humiliation of a civilization 
which is unable to wrestle with the natural progeny of 
its own lofty ideas. 



Simultaneously with the landing of our Pilgrim 
Fathers at Plymouth Rock, the first cargo of slaves 
was unloaded at Jamestown, Va. The wheat and 
tares took root upon this virgin soil about the same 
time. These two diametrically opposed principles 
were in close combat for ascendency. The history of 
our first years is a record of the struggle of these two 



ideas for priority. The doctrines of the Puritans cul- 
minated at last in the Declaration of Independence. 
And, then, the majestic march of freedom proceeded 
just as rapidly as men appeared who were willing to 
become the incarnation of the heaven-born principle. 
Garrison and Phillips were followed by an enthusiastic 
patriot, whose heart was larger than his head. I do 
not believe in the transmigration of souls, but, some- 
how, it has seemed to me that though John Brown's 
body was mouldering in the grave, his soul crept be- 
neath the blue coats of the brave soldiers of the civil 
war. 



•& ■& 
x 



To be unpatriotic is to be irreligious. True patriot- 
ism worships on the gilded summit of cross-tipped 
Calvary; it dips its sword into the glory of the Cross 
and descends into the valleys to defend the Bible, the 
home, the state, the common schools and the Sabbath. 

Christianity from the beginning has been the friend 
of the man who would ask a question; it has dwelt 
among the doubts of men, and has been busy taking 
the crook out of the interrogation point. Jesus has 
ever been ready to take long walks to Emmaus, or to 
meet doubting Thomases in upper rooms! 



" Jesus Christ is unique and incomparable in life 
and character. A sui generis of the most sublime 
type. You will observe the remarkable childhood of 
Jesus. Precocious and sinless. Even the learned 
doctors did not regard him as an immodest intruder, 
when at twelve years of age, he discussed profound 
theological questions with them. Again, Jesus ad- 
dressed himself to the poor and unlearned. His was a 
day of letters and logic. All thoughtful men were 
casting about for new things. He would have had a 
prompt and enthusiastic following among the scholars, 
but he preferred to introduce himself to the poor — the 
despicable class. The poor were not accounted as 
members of society. But to these Jesus brings mes- 
sages of salvation and from these secures a part of his 
constituency. 

Behold the unparalleled claims Jesus makes for him- 
self as God. He says, "I am from above;" "I and the 
Father are One ;" "The Father sent Me to bear witness 
of Him;" "I am the light of the world;" "No man 
cometh unto the Father but by Me." What ordinary 
man would dare make such claims of equality and 
divinity with God ? What bold effrontery and blasphe- 
mous impertinence, unless Jesus Christ was God 
manifest in the flesh ! Some have been willing to grant 
that Jesus was only a good and great man. If Christ 



was not God His own words would denounce Him as a 
monstrous falsifier. But Jesus was not a demon ; he 
was what he claimed to be, the Only Begotten Son of 
God. 






Gospel principles should be introduced into shop and 
store, office and factory. It was recently stated that 
sewing women in Cincinnati are receiving five cents a 
pair for making trousers, four cents for overalls, and 
that children are earning six cents a day. Oh ! the 
crime of this sweating system ! How avaricious Shy- 
locks are feeding upon the flesh of starving women ! 
The gospel must correct these heinous indignities, and 
emancipate these poor slaves from the most heartless 
taskmasters that have ever cursed the earth. 



# & 

X 



Among the picturesque uplands of Galilee, with a 
multitude about him, with fragrant evidences of the 
vernal season upon every side, the manliest of men de- 
livered the manliest of sermons. The Sermon on the 
Mount was a discourse for the ages. In it the gospel 
keynote was sounded ; the Great Teacher elaborated 
His thrilling philosophy. 



The Cross of Jesus has opened highways of light 
into all the nations of the globe, and back along these 
glowing avenues, the world brought to our Columbian 
Exhibition the products of mind and soil, and placed 
them at the feet of the Goddess of Liberty. 

ft ft 
ft 

It is as true as it is paradoxical that the meek shall 
inherit the earth. The Goliaths and Samsons do not 
hold a mortgage on all things terrestrial. It is gener- 
ally supposed that he, who would leave an indelible im- 
press on the world, must be imperious, self-asserting, 
awe-inspiring, pugnacious and tyrannical. What does 
history reveal ? The Nebuchadnezzars and Alexanders 
and Caesars transformed geography and played at chess 
with real kings and queens and knights, but their em- 
pires have disappeared. Charlemagne and Napoleon 
and Cromwell wrote chapters of history with quills 
dipped in Europe's most royal blood ; but to-day 
France is not an empire and England is not a republic ! 

ft ft 
ft 

The great moving principle, to-day, is meekness. 
Not the Emperor of China, nor the Czar of Russia, nor 
the Sultan of Mohammedanism, is mightiest, but the 
crystalization of the doctrine of meekness, which mani- 
fests itself in international law, reciprocity and arbi- 
tration. 



The ruins of Karnak and Cairo, Baalbec and Baby- 
lon, in silent eloquence, tell the pitiable tale of disap- 
pointed ambition. Might does not make right, and 
force and power have not been able to produce a pro- 
geny which has become the heirs of the earth ; but 
Christ's doctrine of meekness is encircling the adobe ! 



Money is to be an accident of living, not the object 
of life. A useful accessory, but not life itself. When 
gold is laid up against the heart, it steals away warmth, 
tenderness, generosit} r , and soon the heart is as cold 
and hard as the coin itself. See the faithful devotee 
of gold ! With piercing eye and shrivelled face 
and boney hands and bent shoulders, shaving notes and 
darting here and there buying money with pounds of 
flesh ! Oh ! the insatiable greed of gain. 

The wedge of covetousness opened an entrance into 
the dark heart of Judas Iscariot, and there was room 
in the traitor's soul for all the diabolism of hell. Ju- 
das approached Jesus and kissed Him, presuming upon 
his familiarity and former privileges. All the hate and 
rancor of perdition reach their climacteric stroke in the 
monstrous heinousness of that perfidious act. 



The devil's reply to all souls whom he has ruined is, 
"What is that to us — see thou to that." The sinner is 
turned out to die by his cruel master, when infirmity 
unfits the dying slave for further service ! Then an 
abused and forgotten conscience asserts its claims ! 
Alas ! that the list is so long; traitors to country, like 
benedict arnold and charles the Ninth of France; 
traitors to truth, like voltaire and hobbes and paine; 
traitors to purity, like parnell and cardinal beaufort ; 
traitors to friends, like absalom and richard the third 
and lopez of Mexico. Let their names ever be spelt 
with an absence of the capital letter. 

The fruits of Christianity prove its divinity and the 
divinity of its founder. " Greater works than these 
shall ye do." It was great to heal the sick, but it is 
greater to heal the sin-sick soul, give quietude to the 
spiritual man and peace to troubled hearts. It was 
great to cleanse the Temple, but greater to drive dese- 
crators from human hearts and whole nations of men. 
It was great to convince learned doctors, but it is 
greater to rout and subjugate a vast army of men, 
armed with sarcasm, sophistry and syllogism in the 
brightest era of civilization. It was great to raise the 
dead, but greater to redeem a world and destroy death 
itself. It was great to burst the bars of death and 
arise the third day, but it is greater to transform the 



grave into a glorious highway of triumph, which leads 
to realms of immortality. 



It is not a sin to doubt, but it is a sin not to bring 
our doubts to Jesus. 

Science is not inimical to the Bible but accessory. 
All truth is from God. Revealed truth and truth 
which comes from the demonstrations of the scientist, 
are equally sacred, because from the same divine 
source. Prove anything to be scientifically true, and 
the Bible, by correct exegesis will not deny it; God 
cannot antagonize Himself. 

There is much misconception concerning the end of 
human life. Some persons imagine themselves to be 
living under an irrevocable fiat, w T hich will terminate 
life at a particular time. This is monstrous supersti- 
tion, which deserves classification with the mythologies 
of ancient times, for it has no foundation in reason or 
Scripture. Human life is a talent entrusted to us. It 
has not been given to the angels. It is a talent as 
mind, heart, ingenuity and wealth are talents. Our 
endowments strengthen with investment, so it is with 



life ! Longevity depends upon a proper use of the 
talent of life. God makes man to live. God has 
more pleasure in a living, planning, hoty and useful 
man than in an occupied sarcophagus. 

We must part with the Christian home when the Sab- 
bath is no longer a holy day. Our great men are the 
product of Christian homes. God and the nation will 
need great men in the future. The tall pillar of glisten- 
ing marble, which leans against the sky on yonder At- 
lantic coast, is called Washington's Monument, but it is 
more than that: it is a beautiful memorial to a Christian 
home. 

Better Mount Olympus with its weird superstitions, 
where the Greeks centered their faith, than the bald 
peaks of Atheism ! 

The State peremptorily demands manliness, but by 
bad legislation and failure to execute good laws, with 
open saloons on every corner, the State becomes par- 
ticeps criminis in the disreputable business of defiling 
and destroying its citizens ; it makes it nearly impossi- 
ble for our boys to pass safely from innocent child- 



hood to creditable manhood. Verily, it is the ancient 
order of Egypt's Pharoah, " Make brick, but find your 
own straw." 



Sin is not an arbitrary order of Jehovah. Every 
sin to which reference is made in the Decalogue is re- 
garded as an offense against good morals by the civil- 
ized nations of the world. There is not a sin 
denounced in the Scriptures which does not w x ork injury. 

Human life is a temporary detention in this mundane 
sphere, that faculties may be developed by which man 
may enjoy immortal life. Human life is but the ebbing 
and flowing of the beating waves upon the silvery 
strand. Human life is but the fringe of life immortal. 






To-day, all the Christian world is making a visit to 
Bethlehem; and like Joseph, men are to be defenders 
of their Lord ; like the angels, they are to fill the world 
with his praise ; like the shepherds, they are to tell the 
glad tidings and evangelize the world ; like the wise 
men, they are to open their treasures of love and 
loyalty and industry and talents, and pour them out 
freely at the Master's feet. 



All hail the Christmas Lord! The glories of His 
coming rest upon the mercy seat, granting pardon to 
the sinner, and sanctification to the believer. A cloud 
of glory follows us into the valley and shadow, and 
night flees away, and the wounds of grief are healed. 
And when we have finished our journey, this same 
celestial light will catch us in its bright embrace, and 
in a chariot of glory we will sweep into the presence of 
the Christmas Christ in the realm of eternal rest. 

He who dwells with Christ in Faith's Transfiguration 
Splendor, will reach up in the valley of daily life to 
attitudes of holiness and purity. 



Did you ever unbraid a sunbeam? If so you have 
found not only light, but life, force and beauty. The 
splendor of the rose is but the kiss of a sunbeam. So 
I would have you analyze the rays of power radiating 
from the throne of a Risen Lord and beating upon the 
hearts of men. 

Christ is truth! Truth conquers! Does Christ? 
I stood with bated breath under the swinging lamp in 
Pisa's noted Cathedral, and then climbed to the dizzy 



top of the famous Leaning Tower, and observed that 
every principle for which Galileo was put to death has 
now an indisputable place in the realm of physics. 
Yes, truth conquers ! Does Christ? Climb the green 
slopes of Olivet and stand to-day on the summit of 
the Ascension Mount; Gethsemane with its wrin- 
kled olive trees is at your feet ; Calvary is not far 
away ; but the influence of a Risen Lord has so filled 
the earth that Olivet is to-day a blazing mountain send- 
ing its rays of light and life and redemption into all 
lands ! Yes, Christ conquers ! Christ is truth ! 

The deductions of Euclid in mathematics and the 
demonstrations of Hipparchus in astronomy, are just 
as new to-day as when first announced. Truth drinks 
from the fountains of perpetual youth. Christ's truth 
is never old. The most fragrant and fruitful influence 
upon the earth is Christ Jesus. 



The palaces and citadels of earth may disintegrate, 
but this temple of divine truth has no ruins. It is a 
picturesque Alhambra, spreading its architectural 
splendor through the years; each age adding a turret, 
a tower, or a shrine. 



In ancient Rome, a noted philosopher was honored 
and feted in Caesar's palaces, but no one in those royal 
circles mentioned even the name of the humble Chris- 
tian propagator chained to a Roman soldier in a dirty 
Roman prison. To-day, however, only the scholar 
knows of Seneca, while Paul, next to Jesus Christ, is 
the most conspicuous figure in Christian philosophy. 



«& * 

* 



That which differentiates man from all other animals 
is his soul life. Even if evolution can prove its claims 
it cannot produce a man. It may account for the ani- 
mal Adam, but only God can breath into man's nostrils 
the breath of life, and create a living soul. God had 
animals enough, He did not make man to be a brute. 
Alas ! what a lamentable misconception of his possi- 
bilities when man devotes himself alone to his animal 
nature. He cheapens his birthright, surrenders his 
sceptre, abdicates his throne, and ought to be called by 
another name — he is no longer a man. 

All the great movements of history have turned 
upon men as pivotal points. 



As the closing strain of some majestic oratorio leaves 
its delicious echo in our souls, so does the final utter- 
ance of the blessed Holy Bible linger in our hearts 
with assurances of affectionate consolation: " Whoso- 
ever will, let him come." 

In the world about us everything bears upon and in 
itself the prediction of its purpose and utility. Frank- 
lin, as he saw the lightning leap from cloud to cloud, 
tremble in the crags, slice the granite rock and shiver the 
giant oak, wondered if such a mighty force could not 
be coaxed from its wild haunts and harnessed to the 
chariots of civilization. Let the astronomer discern a 
rolling sun in the heavens, and he will predict an earth 
in which light and heat are indispensable. Viewed in 
this w T ay what marvellous possibilities of peace and 
power belong to man. A physical nature so intricate 
in mechanism, that men are exhausting their skill as 
students of anatomy. A mental nature with such 
powers of analysis and synthesis, that it reaches out to 
comprehend the thoughts of God. An affectionate 
nature, so tender and enduring, that eternity will be 
too short to fathom its capabilities. A spiritual nature, 
so divinely susceptible, that it daily takes on the image 
of God. What prophecies are these of the glory which 
awaits the individual who strives to reach manhood's 
highest ideal ! 



The genuine husband will be as courteous as a knight, 
as gallant as a courtier. He will not allow his wife to 
miss the little kindnesses and amenities which charac- 
terized the earlier days of their acquaintanceship. He 
will be ever a rapturous lover, frequently declaring his 
devotion. He will trust his wife with his confidences, 
his plans and his pocket book. 



x 
x 



The genuine wife will be devoted and loving ; and 
contented to make her home her kingdom. She will 
keep up with her husband in matters intellectual, and 
will manifest increasing interest in his temporal affairs. 
The ideal wife will cause many a husband to say with 
Edmund Burke, u every care vanisheth the moment I 
enter under my roof." 

Creation is a colossal failure if there is no immortality. 
Better to have been a brute on the hillside than a man, 
if there be no life after this. If the Bible doctrine is a 
myth, then life is a burlesque, integrity a burden, and 
conscience a withering, tantalizing curse. Persuade 
all men that there is no life after this life, and the 
human family will be hurried to extinction by suicide. 



To live again is the hunger of the soul. As the babe 
instinctively takes nourishment from the mother' s 
bosom, so without instruction men have reached out 
after a better life. Yes, the soul is in exile. Like the 
homing-pigeon released, it hurries back to the bosom 
of the Father. 



That tree will have the loftiest boughs which has the 
deepest roots ; so of humility. 



In the physical universe, from chaos and gloom, by 
methods of development, have been marshaled the 
mighty hosts of suns, planets, satellites, animal and 
vegetable life, until all is capable of perfect classifica- 
tion. Also in the universe of thought. In their 
earlier periods principles were followed like phantoms 
in the breaking dawn. To-day, astrology, with its 
sages and magi, has given away to astronomy, which, 
with inebriating fascination, handles the telescope and 
spectrum. Alchemy, with its witches and wizards and 
boiling cauldron, has given up its homely chrysalis for 
the gay plumage of an indisputable science. So we 
look for order in the moral government of the universe. 
Here is moral confusion ! Peaks of holiness rise 
higher, but canyons of vice grind deeper ! What one 



holds dear another defames ! The laws which some 
obey others deride. Here the good suffer, the bad 
prosper. The Psalmist discriminatingly writes, "My 
steps had well-nigh slipped when I saw the prosperity 
of the wicked.*' Here are too many human monstrosi- 
ties who feed upon the pains and aches of their fellows. 
Order must come, but another world will be required ! 
Tears enough are wrung from broken hearts by evil 
influences to run the water-wheel of immortality for- 
ever! Another life will be required to correct the 
irregularities of the rewards and punishments of this 
life. 



Atheism has stubbornly assailed the citadel of the 
soul's immortality, but only to the substantial strength- 
ening of faith in the doctrine. I used to grow indig- 
nant at the impudence of unbelief, but now, eyen its 
bitterest attacks, before they reach my ears are trans- 
formed into the doleful lamentations of disappointed 
and deceived souls. Agnosticism and unbelief are 
due largely to an ^atrophy of that part of the brain 
upon which the higher and holier tastes depend. " Let 
me hang out the danger signal at the appalling brink of 
an atrophy of faith. Many a poor soul is being hurled 
about in the savage whirlpool below unable to extricate 
himself. 



Conscience is a sort of Mount Olivet in the uplands 
of the soul, rising higher than the hill-tops of the 
moral nature about it ; whose summit catches the first 
gleams of the morning light from the heart of God ; 
and about whose brow linger the departing rays of 
evening's lengthening twilight. From the peak of 
conscience man finds a highway to God, adown which 
the Holy Spirit sweeps in blissful ministrations, and by 
means of which man ascends and holds sweet com- 
munion with his God. 

ft ft 
ft 

Along the centuries many unsuccessful efforts have 
been made to focus the bright rays of civilization 
against the Holy Bible for its destruction, after the plan 
of an ambitious patriot in the ancient time; but the 
towers of these useless operations have been erected 
only to be in turn abandoned; and now, in ruined deso- 
lation, they are the milestones marking the progress 
made by truth invincible in the hurrying centuries. 



To-day, like a majestic ship, though higher and 
lower critics and skeptics wildly vociferate, the Holy 
Bible does not slacken its speed, but proceeds on its 
beneficient mission, stopping only at the ports of 
human necessity that it may discharge its precious 
freight. 



Humility is not the sickly fawning of the cringing 
sycophant or the obsequious flatterer, nor is it the 
nauseating servility of Uriah Heep, but it is such a 
modest estimate of oneself, as prompts him to take the 
lower seat in the synagogue, until found worthy to 
occupy the higher place. 



* % 

x 



The argument for the soul's immortality is so con- 
vincing as to arouse within us mighty determinations 
to so live that our future estate may be among those 
whose soul trend has been upward to the regions of 
nobility and holiness. From the earth-side we are 
building an arch over the chasm of death. By faith 
and revelation we learn that a similar arch is con- 
structed from the heaven-side. The keystone of the 
structure is Jesus of Nazareth. Let us give to him the 
place he has won by his sufferings and triumphs ! The 
arch is sprung from earth to heaven, and an highway is 
builded, over which our souls may travel to the domain 
of the pure and good. 



E. SHELLEY MORGAN, 

WITH 

GLASS & PRUDHOMME, PRINTERS, 

PORTLAND, OREGON. 







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